Jim Carrey's The Mask was supposed to be a horror film

'The Mask' director Chuck Russell has revealed that New Line originally wanted the madcap family film to be a horror in the same style as the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' series

Jim Carrey's beloved fantasy comedy film 'The Mask' was originally intended to be a horror movie.

The 1994 movie - starring the Hollywood funnyman and a young Cameron Diaz - was a huge box office hit and is still popular with family audiences now who love Carrey as unlucky bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss and his madcap green-faced alter ego.

Now, director Chuck Russell has revealed he had to battle bosses at New Line to let him make the film a comedy as opposed to the horror romp they had envisioned.

Speaking to Xfinity about the 30th anniversary of his cult classic Freddy Krueger instalment 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors', Russell said: "It's a great example of really fighting for your vision in a film. We changed it from a horror film into a comedy. It was original conceived as being a horror film. That was a real battle. New Line wanted a new kind of Freddy [Krueger] movie."

The 'I Am Wrath' helmer understands why New Line thought the character would best be presented on the big screen as murderous villain because the Dark Horse comic book series - which is what the film is based on - presents a far more gruesome individual.

Russell added: "By coincidence, I had seen the same original Mask comic they ended up buying, and I thought, 'That's really cool, but it's too derivative of Freddy Krueger.' It really was. He would put on the mask and kill people. And have one-liners. It was a really cool, splatterpunk, black and white comic. They've redone the comics to be more like my movie, but the original comics were really cool, dark and scary. But I knew, as a film, it would be very reminiscent of Freddy Krueger."

'The Mask' was one of three films released that year starring Carrey, the other two being 'Dumb and Dumber' and 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective', which made him a global superstar.

Russell, 59, knew he wanted Carrey, 55, for the lead role, even though he wasn't widely known back then, after watching him do a stand-up comedy routine in Los Angeles.

The filmmaker shared: "He wasn't really desired as a leading man at that time. [When I saw] him he looked like a hallucination live on stage. Jim read it and he said, 'I'll be doing this role at grocery store openings when I'm 70.' "